Ridgewell: We've shown it can be done

9 March 2013

And defender hands plaudits to Swansea for following in similar vein

LIAM Ridgewell believes today’s meeting between Albion and Swansea is a showcase for how teams coming up from the Championship can establish themselves in the Barclays Premier League while sticking to their passing game.

The former Blues left-back, who celebrated his first anniversary at The Hawthorns in January, is confident the ninth-placed Baggies are on course to secure a fourth successive season in the top flight.

And he has also handed the plaudits to the eighth-placed Swans, who look destined to make it a third campaign in a row among England’s elite, on the back of last month’s Capital One Cup triumph.

“Coming out and playing such good football, and winning the League Cup, is very good for a side like that and we’ll have to be on the ball against them,” said Ridgewell.

“To stay in this division you have to have a good solid defensive unit as a team, and I think we’ve got that in abundance.

“But you also need a little bit extra, you need to play, and you need to try and get goals and do well at home – I think we’ve done that.

“I’ve been here just over a year now and it’s gone how I expected really.

“It’s been a very good transition for me.

“Looking at West Brom before I came here, they looked like a very strong club and this season we’ve tried to build on that.

“We’re just going game to game and trying to get as many points as we can.

“I don’t think it’s worth seeing where you can win games because it doesn’t work out that way.

“We’re just trying to get as many points as we can and cum the end of the season we’ll see where we are.

“We’re on course to beat last season’s points total and that shows we’re building.”

The 28-year-old defender is now hoping to secure a third win in four games as Albion look to leapfrog Michael Laudrup’s City outfit in the table.

He added: “Swansea have been doing very well, as we have.

“We’ve turned it around a little bit in the last few weeks and picked up some points.